Musician returns to a happy note

MUSICIAN Malcolm Battersby shook his head, still amazed that he could sit on the deck of his little Tasmanian shack, while around him his friends' homes were gone.

''I have absolutely no idea why mine survived,'' Battersby said. ''I know that no firefighter could have stopped this.''

As small communities dotted around the Tasman Peninsula emerged from isolation, the almost-lost community of Sommers Bay was testament to the power of the fire that ran on after it took Dunalley.

Sommers Bay was the kind of place where people without deep pockets could make a peaceful home.

But last Friday Battersby, a 56-year-old English-born prog-rocker, watched as the bushfire crested the hills facing him across the bay and raced down, fed by 40-degree temperatures and high winds. An hour after it had taken Dunalley, it was coming for Sommers Bay.

''The sky went red, the heat went red, and the smoke started billowing down,'' Battersby said. ''It got to the water's edge on the other side, and then it took two seconds to jump the water.''

''I hoofed it in my car. I'd already loaded my guitars and amps.''

He drove to Nubeena, where a friend still at Sommers Bay texted to say: ''My house is gone, and yours is going.''

He stayed at a refuge, convinced that anyone who stayed in Sommers Bay would have been cremated. ''Then I came home. It took me to Sunday evening to find that I still had a place.''

On either side of his house were chimneys and piles of roofing iron. At the front was his new view of black pencil-stick tree trunks and ash, as far as the eye could see.

It's losses like these that make local communities fear that once again, the tourist-dependent Tasman Peninsula will suffer as interstate visitors stay away.

Peninsula business was crippled for months after the 1996 Port Arthur shootings.

But despite the overwhelming toll of buildings lost in Dunalley and hamlets such as Sommers Bay, much of the southern peninsula, and Port Arthur itself, are green and unaffected. Firefighters beat the bushfire back.

''My message would be: 'Don't be frightened to come back, because the locals will look after you','' said Tasman councillor Joan Fazackerley.

The state has begun assembling a bushfire recovery taskforce, to be chaired by the former Commonwealth director of public prosecutions, Damian Bugg, QC.

At least 126 properties were destroyed or damaged in the fire, but after scouring hundreds more properties as well without finding any bodies, police are increasingly confident that no one died or was seriously injured.

■ Volunteers at Tasmania's largest bushfire refuge say thieves stole handbags and fuel in the chaos of the disaster. The refuge at the Nubeena civic centre on the Tasman Peninsula housed as many as 2000 people fleeing fires at the height of the crisis.

Many left private and hire cars behind when they were evacuated by boat at the weekend.

Police were yet to respond to a request for comment on the stealing claims.

AAP

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